The Most Valuable Company to Ever Exist | Dutch East India Company

In 1637, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was valued at around 78 million guilders, which modern estimates convert to roughly $7 to $8 trillion. It had its own soldiers, warships and forts, and it could sign treaties and wage war, all while answering to shareholders in Amsterdam. In this documentary, we trace the full story of the VOC: how a small Dutch republic built the world's first large joint-stock corporation, why a spice obsession turned into a military monopoly, what happened in the Banda Islands in 1621, and how the richest company of its age slowly collapsed under debt, corruption and war. Note: the trillion-dollar figure is a modern conversion estimate, not a directly measured market capitalization. Different methods give very different results. Subscribe for more deep-dive history and economics documentaries. #VOC #DutchEastIndiaCompany #HistoryDocumentary #economy #history #EconomicHistory